--- Doug Dee <AmateurLinguist@...> wrote:
> In a message dated 2/6/2005 7:46:11 PM Eastern
> Standard Time,
> fiziwig@YAHOO.COM writes:
> >I don't even begin to understand why 'y' would be
> >classed as anything but a vowel.
>
> Which do you say:
>
> "a year" or "an year"?
> "a ear" or "an ear"?
>
> If, like every English-speaker I've ever met, you
> say "a year", not "an
> year", then that is evidence that in your
> phonological system the "y" sound at the
> start of "year" is a consonant. (Because the
> general rule is "an" before
> vowels and "a" before consonants.)
>
That was an historic event.
Aha! 'H' is a vowel! I always wondered about that.
;-)